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<p>SAN MATEO -- Health officials today said one new suspected case of SARS has been reported in San Mateo County and the patient has been ordered into isolation by the county health officer.</p> <p>The unidentified 39-year-old man recently visited Taiwan and had agreed to isolate himself after reporting symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome on May 30. But according to the San Mateo County Health Services Agency the man broke the agreement, prompting Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow to issue an involuntary isolation order.</p>

CHINESE authorities have identified the patient who started the Sars epidemic that has killed at least 770 people around the world. Huang Xingchu, 36, a cook who prepared wild animal dishes in a restaurant in Shenzhen on the Hong Kong border, survived the infection, but now lives in hiding for fear of retribution. Medical experts believe that the Sars virus was passed from the civet cat, a favourite on menus around Hong Kong, to human beings. A restaurant kitchen or livestock market are the most likely places where this happened. The infected cook lost his job and many friends because...

A student from New Rochelle High School (my high school) has an apparent case of SARS, according to the Associated Press. The article is available here via Newsday. NRHS is several miles outside Manhattan. -sdk

<p>MINERAL RIDGE, Ohio (AP) A school district with 1,100 students shut down Monday after parents said they were worried a group of students may have been exposed to the SARS virus during a trip to Canada last week.</p> <p>None of the students showed any signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome, but two school board members received five or six calls each from worried parents and asked that schools be closed, said Rocco Adduci, superintendent of Weathersfield School District in suburban Youngstown.</p>

ATLANTA -- The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention activated its emergency operations center for only the third time ever in response to reports of mysterious pneumonia-like illness that has caused at least four deaths.No cases of the illness have been identified in the United States, health officials said. But a doctor believed to be infected was taken off a New York-to-Singapore flight in Germany on Saturday and quarantined.CDC officials tried to reassure Americans on Saturday that - although the illness has sickened more than 150 people in seven countries - it appears to be contagious only in close...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - A doctor from Singapore believed infected with a mysterious form of pneumonia that hit parts of Asia was taken off an airplane from New York on Saturday and quarantined in a Frankfurt hospital, German health authorities said. The doctor, believed to be the first person in Europe to be infected with the atypical virus, was flying to Singapore from New York, where he already began to suffer symptoms, Dr. Angela Wirtz, of the Hessen state health office said in a statement. Fearful the virus may be spreading, the Geneva-based international health organization, WHO, issued an emergency...

Guangdong doctor linked to SARS outbreak International effort reveals links between SARS outbreak and Chinese pneumonia, and possible agent. | By Robert Walgate Margaret Chan, Health Director of Hong Kong, said today that the source of the current international outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) seems to be a doctor from Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, the southernmost region of China, which saw 300 cases of a mystery pneumonia between November 2002 and February 2003. Chan's comments are reported in the Hong Kong Standard. China only recently agreed to cooperate with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US...

BREAKING: Mysterious Asian Illness May Be Brand New Disease Tests are unable to identify bug causing sickness Breaking new this morning in the San Francisco Chronicle is that the strange illness is a brand new disease. (March 18, 2003) I quote a brief excerpt from their report: A mysterious, flu-like illness that has stricken scores of hospital workers in Southeast Asia has stumped a battery of tests for known bacteria and viruses and most likely represents a new human disease of unknown origin, federal health authorities said Monday. At least 14 cases bearing some resemblance to the illness are being...

Wolfgang Preiser --------------------- We report on a patient admitted the day before yesterday (Sat 15 Mar 2003) to our Isolation Unit with atypical pneumonia, together with his travel companions. The patient is a medical doctor from Singapore who treated one of the earliest cases of SARS there between 3 and 9 Mar 2003. On 9 Mar 2003 he himself developed fever (39.4°C), myalgia and bone pain but did not have cough, dyspnoea or sore throat. Despite this, he flew to New York City to attend a medical meeting, accompanied by his wife who is also a doctor and by his...

hinese health officials yesterday gave the World Health Organization the first, sketchy details about a mysterious respiratory ailment that is believed to have first broken out in Guangdong province last November and that Chinese officials say has tapered off in recent weeks.W.H.O. officials were elated to receive the information, because it was the first official communication from China about the outbreak and because it provides a longer-term view of how the illness has behaved since the first cases were detected. Although the new information hints that the outbreak may be ending in Guangdong for unknown reasons, W.H.O. officials say they...

LITTLE ROCK — A man hospitalized in Arkansas with what health officials believe was the state’s first probable case of the SARS virus has recovered fully and been released, the Department of Health said Tuesday. The patient was traveling through the state on business and went to a hospital May 22. He was released Tuesday, the department said in a news release. While the man had symptoms consistent with SARS, the Health Department is still waiting on tests to confirm that it is the virus that has been reported in 31 countries, infected more than 8,000 people and killed hundreds....

Nothing follows.

<p>A person suspected of having SARS refuses to be tested for the disease and, instead, files a lawsuit claiming that government-mandated screening is a violation of his constitutional right to privacy and the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable search and seizures. Then SARS activists — afraid of being "treated like lepers" — hold up Food and Drug Administration approval of a private home SARS testing kit on the same grounds and because of objections that home tests didn't have face-to-face counseling. They also threaten to seize the patent of any company that develops a SARS drug or vaccine and give it to any generic company to ensure "access." Guess how far SARS would spread in the face of such obstacles?</p>

School warns parents of SARS May 4, 2003 Parents of students attending Cloverdale Elementary School in Carol Stream received letters Friday informing them that a student or teacher had exhibited a symptom of possible SARS infection. District 93 Supt. Henry A. Gmitro said Saturday the letters were sent as a precaution because the individual also had a "personal history" factor--such as travel to a country where SARS rates are high--that warranted monitoring for three days. The person had not come down with any new symptoms, and Gmitro said he hoped the situation would soon be resolved.

Lufkin woman with SARS symptoms isolated at home She had traveled to Taiwan; state taking 'precautionary steps'05/28/2003 Associated Press LUFKIN, Texas – A Lufkin woman who exhibited symptoms associated with the SARS virus after returning from Taiwan this month is being isolated in a family member's home while health officials notify dozens of East Texas residents with whom the woman had contact, the Texas Department of Health said Tuesday. The state health department and two local health agencies began investigating the case over the weekend after the woman reported symptoms associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome, Health Department spokesman Doug...

15:12 ET Market Action : Rumor circulating trading floors of a case of SARS in the White House. Hearing this contributed to intraday downturn (Dow lost 80 pts in 20 min) in the market. Is it true? Don't know, but probably not (most rumors aren't). Just letting you know what's going around the market.

Health officials powerless to squelch rumors By KEN McLEMORE and PAT HARRIS, Hope Star Writers Federal privacy rules in effect slightly more than a month are rendering local, state and national health officials powerless to prevent the spread of rumors that a Canadian truck driver has been in isolation at Medical Park Hospital since Friday with a "probable" case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Arkansas Department of Health Deputy Medical Director Dr. Joe Bates first confirmed the presence of a "probable" SARS case in Arkansas in a news account published Sunday in a state newspaper. At that time, Dr....

Local news station KLTV in Tyler, Texas announced a suspected case of SARS in East Texas. The woman lives in Lufkin, but had recently traveled to Taiwan. She has developed symptoms and is in isolation in a family members home. No other details were released.

BISMARCK - North Dakota health officials are checking for the state's possible first case of SARS, which is suspected in a Cass County woman who visited the Toronto airport in early May. The state Health Department described the person only as a Cass County resident in his or her 20s. The presence of the respiratory illness will take about three weeks to confirm, said Larry Shireley, a state disease specialist. Health officials declined to specify the person's gender, but Shireley, during a conference call with reporters Friday and a separate interview afterward, inadvertently referred to the person as "she." New...

In USA, All New Suspect and Probable SARS Cases Negative by Lab TestingBETHESDA, MD, USA -- May 22, 2003 -- A total of 355 SARS cases identified in the United States have been reported from 40 states, with 290 (82%) cases classified as suspect SARS and 65 (18%) classified as probable SARS (more severe illnesses characterized by the presence of pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome) (2). One probable and nine suspect cases have been identified since the last update (3). Of the 65 probable SARS patients, 41 (63%) were hospitalized, and two (3%) required mechanical ventilation. No SARS-related deaths...